Kelly Benefit Strategies signs four young talents

Kelly Benefit Strategies has recruited four young American talents for its 2010 roster. Among the updated roster is Jesse Anthony, Ian Macgregor, Guy East and Alex Boyd.

Coming from Team Type 1, Anthony is a seven-time under-23 US National Cyclo-Cross Champion and more recently the 2009 Tour of Taiwan King of the Mountain winner.

Ian Macgregor, also from Team Type 1, is a two-time under-23 US National Road Champion and scored stages wins at the Tour de Beauce and Fitchburg Longsjo Classic. Alex Boyd joins the team from Rock Racing along with Guy East from Trek-Livestrong.

The new signings fall in line with the latest UCI rule whereby United States-based Continental teams must have the majority of its riders American and under the age of twenty-eight.

"Everything is set to go for 2010 and I am in the process of finalizing the roster," said Directeur Sportif Jonas Carney. "It's too early to give you an updated roster. However, our team will remain very similar, but there are a couple of new faces."

"We've been patient, it's our third season," Carney said. "Our first year was to build a foundation and our philosophy was to build the team around a core group of riders and not just buy one big name that could win races for us. We wanted a team with a lot of depth that could do a lot of things. Sometimes that can be tough because if the racing is negative or controlled we don't have the fastest time trialist or sprinter. But, if there are opportunities we do very well."

According to Carney, Kelly Benefit Strategies will focus on marquee races like the USPro Championships, the Philadelphia International Cycling Championships and the Tour of California, should it receive an invitation. The 2010 schedule will include east coast races where title sponsor Kelly Benefit Strategies has a strong market.

The team experienced a magnitude of success that included wins at the Tour of Thailand, Tour of Uruguay, Tour du Beauce and the Fitchburg Longsjo Classic. "We are also planning to expand our international schedule," Carney said. "We expect to be even stronger in that area in 2010 and that will be our focus."

When asked what some of the contributing factor were to the success of Kelly Benefit Strategies this year, Carney said. "I think the biggest contributing factor is the team atmosphere, we've always had a good team atmosphere and guys who are willing to sacrifice for each other."

The squad will unite in the New Year for a meet and greet training camp at a location yet to be announced. "We have rough training camp plans," Carney said. "We will again do a winter camp in January for the riders to get to know each other in a relaxed atmosphere. Our official team training camp will be in early February."

In the future, Carney hopes to bring his team into more international racing by joining the Professional Continental ranks. However, he noted a major concern to take the step up due to the UCI code 2.1.009 that prohibits ProTour and Professional Continental teams from competing in national level events where only UCI Continental teams of the country, regional and club teams, national teams and mixed teams may participate.

"I would like to see the team turn Pro Continental and spend more time racing internationally," Carney said. "I feel like we can go to Europe and race at a high level. There is no question about that. Being Pro-Continental costs more and there is a complication in the rules right now. It doesn't make sense for any American team until they [UCI] address that rule."